Trump Team Claims Deteriorating Center Needs Demolition Before Renovation

Sign up HERE for our DC Insider newsletter if you want the real scoop on what is rocking Washington and rattling the White House right now. See more Daily Mail updates on Google by saving us as a Preferred Source immediately. The Trump administration just argued that the Kennedy Center will bleed donor money if the President's name gets removed from the building. They claim the decrepit cultural center might actually be required to be taken down soon. This argument appeared in a court filing late Monday during the long-running saga over whether Donald Trump can add his name to the venue meant to honor John F. Kennedy after his assassination. If allowed to deteriorate further, they continued, the facility will need demolition with a determination to follow on what gets built next. That could be an outdoor amphitheater overlooking the Potomac River, they said, adding that it would fail to adequately honor President John F. Kennedy but would be much easier to build and maintain. The original attempt to add Donald J. Trump on the building's facade was halted by the court in May following a lawsuit from Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center. The center's Trump-aligned board of trustees then voted again this month to get the president's name back on the cultural institution in a different way. They proposed appending Renovated and Restored By President Donald J. Trump under the title on the building's facade. Another phrase, Endowed by the Trump Kennedy Center Fund, would be a possible addition as well. Renaming the plaza in front of the Kennedy Center to honor the president is also on the table. In response, Beatty again asked the federal court to block those stylings, arguing that they were clear violations of the Kennedy Center statute that barred the board from making the center into a memorial to anyone else. Trump administration attorneys have argued that if the President's name is not kept on the Kennedy Center, it will lose donor money and the decrepit cultural center may be required to be taken down. That came from a court filing late Monday on the long-running saga over whether the president's name can be added to the cultural institution and venue meant to honor John F. Kennedy after his assassination. A federal judge will hear arguments on that request this Thursday. Justice Department attorneys replied in Monday's filing with a grim picture of the state of the Kennedy Center. They described it as a financially insolvent facility, housed in a decrepit, dilapidated, crumbling building that continues to race toward physical and financial ruin. Renovations were required, they argued, but an order blocking the Board from appropriately recognizing President Trump will cause donors to flee, financial contributions to dry up, and structural rehabilitation to stop. There will simply not be the expertise or funding necessary to rebuild and renovate this decimated structure. This latest attempt to add Trump's name on and around the center was met with some incredulity from Beatty's attorneys. They said it is a transparent attempt to effectuate the renaming in another guise. It´s déjà vu all over again, they wrote.

Plaintiffs told the court that judges should not have to play a childish game of whack-a-mole against these defendants. They asked for a final ruling to halt the renaming attempts immediately. The request demanded an end to this specific gambit. It is not the first time the board of trustees claimed fundraising would suffer without Trump's name on the building. That same excuse was used previously.

Trump's name disappeared from the Kennedy Center in less than six months after it was affixed to the historic performing arts center. A panel of judges ruled in July that the claim lacked support from specific facts or evidence. The Kennedy Center has faced harder times since Trump got more involved, with several artists canceling performances and attendance dropping sharply.

This situation is one of many attempts by the presidential administration to put Trump's stamp on the U.S. capital. Plans include a 250-foot triumphal arch and what Trump called a military complex slash ballroom at the White House. The Kennedy Center was originally dedicated to President John F. Kennedy before the name change happened.

In early June, the removal of The Donald J Trump label continued. The building's sign is now going back to read The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for Performing Arts once again. Trump's full name had been plastered on the historic building for 176 days after US District Judge Christopher Cooper deemed that the board's decision was unlawful in late May.

Cooper gave the Kennedy Center until Friday, June 12 to remove all Trump-branded signage from the building grounds and website entirely. The judge an Obama appointee responded to a lawsuit filed by Democratic Representative Joyce Beatty. She had standing because she serves as an ex officio member of the board. Cooper wrote that the center's organic statute makes it crystal clear that the name must remain President Kennedy.

Trump complained on Truth Social about turning management over to Congress after Cooper denied the board's request for a delay. He argued that defendants failed to show they will succeed on appeal. The judge also noted de minimis resources required to restore the current name if an appeal succeeded. It all comes just a little more than a year after Trump replaced the center's board with his political allies.

Those allies then elected him as board chair by December. They voted to rename the iconic landmark within that month. Within hours, Trump's name appeared on the website and the building the following morning. The addition of his name sparked immediate controversy from the public and the Kennedy family right away.